50-3-2 is our record at the end of the season. That's impressive. No matter what level. In El Paso, we went 4-0. We beat the Fresno Monsters 3-1, the El Paso Rhinos 9-6 (one of the craziest games I've ever played in), and the Dallas Ice Jets 3-2 (in round robin play) and 6-5 in overtime in the championship game. This weekend was icing on the cake to an amazing season. Whether we won or lost in the championship game, we knew we still had a great season and accomplished some great things together. But we weren't going to be denied. All season long we refused to lose, and we did that right to the very end. We sure as hell weren't going to let Fresno, our rivals, beat us, and they didn't. (They actually went 0-3 at the championships...) When we had 50 minutes of penalties called on us--with seven 5-on-3 penalty kills--in the game against El Paso, we stayed positive and prevailed. When we were down by 2 goals two times in the championship game, we fought back to win. This team has tremendous character, and on the bus after our win our coach was saying how much harder it felt to win the league this year because to do it twice in a row is that much harder; there is a huge target on your back. You definitely get your competition's best game every time, so you have to be ready for every game.
I can't even begin to explain the amazing season we just had, and it's hard to believe it's over. This year was the best year of my life. I've never had so much fun in a season, and I'm going to cherish all the memories and friendships I've made in the process. I had my exit meeting yesterday. My coaches told me they're going to miss having me around and that I would definitely be hard to replace with the kind of character I have. But they said they are proud of all my accomplishments in the past year and a half, and they're excited that I'm going to a school that I want to go to. I told them that I came into this year with some goals in mind, and I came pretty close to accomplishing all my goals. http://followingahockeydream.blogspot.com/2011/08/practice-starts-in-week-goals-for.html Here is the link to my goals for this season. We lost one game at home all year long, in double overtime in the playoffs. We won our regular season division title and our division title in the playoffs, and we won our league championship. We did not win nationals because we didn't go to nationals, but I have a feeling we would've won this year. I have no qualms about saying that. We were that good. I committed to a school in November, I played on our top penalty kill unit, scored 27 points, and I definitely had more fun than I did last year! Goals are pretty powerful.
20 years from now, I'm going to be able to look back on this year and just shake my head. I've made some unbelievable friends, had a great experience, and had the best time of my life playing the sport I love. But now it's time for me to start the next chapter. I couldn't be more excited! Tonight is our team's banquet, which means it might be the last time I see a lot of the guys on the team for a while. I'm going to miss everyone, but I'll ALWAYS have the memories!
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